CUBA: Fidel & the U.S. Negro

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Of the numerous shortcomings of the U.S. that rouse the concern of Fidel Castro, one of the most worrisome is the plight of the U.S. Negro. As he sees it, the best way to end discrimination would be for Negroes to rise in arms against the imperialists in Washington, taking their cue from Castro's own revolt. "What would happen," he asks, his eyes alight at the possibility, "if the Negroes in the Southern U.S., so often lynched, were each given a rifle?"

Short of that Draconian solution, Castro is doing what he can for the U.S. Negro. He hired Harlem's aging "Black Eagle," Colonel Hubert Fauntleroy Julian, to buy arms in Europe, and is currently giving Singer Marian Anderson the red-carpet treatment in Havana. Last year he invited Roy Campanella, Willie Mays, Joe Louis and Jackie Robinson to share his New Year's celebration in Havana.

Joe Louis showed up, found Castro's Cuba a place "where a Negro can go in the wintertime without discrimination."

Now Louis — whose debts include $1-250,000 in back income taxes—has carried his admiration further and become a paid pressagent for Cuba. With Cuba's $60 million-a-year tourist business off 85% and Havana's luxury hotels deserted, Castro signed a $287,000-a-year contract with a Manhattan all-Negro public relations firm (Joe Louis, vice president) to promote Cuba as a vacation spot for U.S. Negroes. The firm gets a fee of $25,000 a year, plus a 15% commission on advertising, so far has plans to spend $262,000 on contests and convention speakers plus space in U.S. publications bought mostly by Negroes. "We have nothing to do with Castro or politics; it's just another publicity account," said Joe, who had to register with the Justice Department as a foreign agent. Worriedly, he added that payment on the new account is already "two months behind."